AAP dharna: The unstated critical issues the country failed to see through

This article is not about Arvind Kejriwal, his party members, ministerial colleagues or about the incidents involving Delhi Law Minister Somnath Bharti at Khiki Extension or Rakhi Birla demanding that the Police arrest suspects involved in setting a woman ablaze elsewhere in the capital. It is about the larger issues which the agitation had brought to the fore consciously or otherwise. It is about the security of the people, police functioning, its reactions to situations and people’s involvement in the maintenance of law and order in a large city like Delhi. It is about the heightened terrorist threat which India and Delhi in particular is likely to witness after the US pull out from Afghanistan at the end of 2014.

Consider a situation – a citizen of the locality notices a group of men moving in to live with one of the residents of the locality. They are found moving in and out of the house at odd times looking different from the locals and speaking strange language amongst themselves with an odd accent. He suspects some shady activities going on in or from the house. He has doubts that the group may be militants who may carry out a strike somewhere in the city. If he rings up the police emergency number or contacts one of those PCR vans standing at the corner of the next street and informs them of his observation, what is the police expected to do or what can one assume the police would do? Wait to obtain a search warrant? Wait for the day break since they will be entering a house in which a family stays including a few ladies and children? Expect the person to come to the police station and file an FIR?

It is possible that the informant may be totally wrong in his assessment, he may not educated or well to do and he may not have the contact number of the Delhi Police commissioner to contact him directly. Should he wait for things to happen and then tell the police what he had thought about the men and help police draw the sketch of the culprits? Can the police afford to wait? We need answers to these issues so that we don’t keep blaming one or the other when lives are lost as a result of delay.

The laws of the land as at present may not be permitting the police to enter the house at night and they may be hounded subsequently for their actions. They may be accused of colluding with some political party or an influential person to harass the occupants of the house. What is the answer? The people have a right to know how the police are expected to react to such complaints.

It is alleged that written complaints about the in laws setting fire to a lady has been made to the people at right quarters. What happened to those complaints? If the police had initiated some actions on the complaints, shouldn’t the police inform the parents of the victim what they are doing to calm them? Shouldn’t they act swiftly to prevent evidences being obliterated? Why do we not want to change for the better? Is the present methods and procedures the best that an Indian mind can configure?

Times of India reported that 7 Africans were caught without documents in Chhatarpur, Delhi. Where did they descend from? A Tanzanian woman was reported to have informed the police that she was being forced into prostitution by her Nigerian friend who lives there. Obviously these devious activities are going on in our cities. Are the police or the immigration authorities unaware of these activities? If it was the case, it speaks volumes for the inefficiency of the agency concerned. Reports of illegal migrants from Bangladesh flooding Assam and further shifting to metropolitan cities like Delhi and Mumbai in search of jobs has been in the news for quite some time. Pakistan based militants had come across the border to carryout strikes in places like Kaluchak (May 2012) and Samba (Sep 2013). Either they had entered the city sufficiently in advance to carry out their reconnaissance to be able to carry out the strike or some locals had helped them. Isn’t there a need to evolve necessary methodologies to act on such activities with speed which costs lives besides adversely affecting the peace and security of the people?

As per National Crime Records Bureau up to 15 Oct, a total of 1330 rape, 2844 molestation, 793 eve teasing, 2906 kidnapping and abduction and 123 dowry death cases have been reported in the National Capital Region in the year 2013. Between Jan and Jun 2013, 7400 vehicles have been stolen of which 60 % were cars. This amounts to almost 41 vehicles a day!! The fact is the vehicles are being stolen by someone, transported to some place, suitably camouflaged to avoid detection, probably documents prepared and sold to someone!! Are these crimes not a matter of serious concern? Are the police doing its job? Is this the best that the government can offer to its citizens?

Our leaders and police have been telling people whenever there is a terrorist attack, a gang rape, murder, major theft cases or automobile theft that the police force is inadequate to keep a watch on every nook and corner of the city and there is a need to seek the help of resident welfare associations and integrate them in the crime prevention mechanism. Here are cases where, may be inadvertently, the AAP has been able to successfully rope in the common man in keeping a vigil and alerting the law enforcement agencies about possible crimes. Instead of acknowledging the active participation of the people in crime prevention and giving them a sense that their actions are being appreciated, are we not discouraging them by our unending criticism of the events in which AAP ministers were involved? Even if the people were wrong, was it not the duty of the government and the political parties to educate the people about the right methods rather than taking political advantage of the situation to criticize one or the other?

Whatever anyone may say about AAP but no one can deny the fact that this party has been able to garner the common man’s support and participation in community issues which we have not witnessed in the country till today.

The central government had been under different political parties with different home ministers and home secretaries exercising control over the Delhi police. Every chief minister of Delhi has been crying hoarse that the Delhi police should come under the Delhi government by appealing to the central government and to the home ministers concerned. Have the so called non agitational methods yielded any results? Home ministry has far too many serious and not so serious issues to deal with includes terrorism, J&K, bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, implementation of official language etc.

Does anyone think that it has the time to exercise supervision and control over the police in Delhi? Law and order is a part of governance. Haven’t good governance been one of the main reasons why smaller states are created? What makes the central government feel that an elected Delhi government will not be able to do at least what it is managing to do now in the matter of dealing with the law and order situation in Delhi?

No less than the Supreme Court of India had decreed the government way back in 2006 to bring about police reforms based on a case filed by two very senior and a respectable police officers Prakash Singh and NK Singh. Have the so called peaceful means brought about the change? Are eight years not sufficient enough time to bring about the change? If this is the respect that the Indian government gives to the highest court of the land, what other peaceful means will work? Aren’t we as a society becoming status quoists? As of today the requirements of reforms and policing methods have gone much beyond those envisaged in 2006. We are yet to wake up.

The situation created by AAP could have been utilized to highlight the deficiencies in the system along with the criticism which the political parties and the media chose to heap on AAP. An opportunity has been lost. If the chaos that one witnessed in Mumbai during 26/ 11 is anything to go by, it gives sufficient insight into the capabilities of our planners to stage manage a situation of that nature leave alone preventing it.

In the present scenario, the very sequence of police response to complaints need rethink. If there is a need for a magistrate, common citizens or camera teams to accompany the police for verifying critical information relating to crime, we may need to include these personnel in the Quick Response Teams (QRT). May be we may have to give magisterial powers to eminent civil society members. If there is a need, we may have to be amend the laws.

Given the facts that the Al-Qaeda leader and Osama bin Laden’s successor Ayman al-Zawahiri has issued his first guidelines to the militant outfit in which he has endorsed the right of militants to fight the Indians in Kashmir for jihad and that after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2014 the country is likely to witness enhanced levels of terrorism related incidents, we need to focus on law and order issues now before it is too late. It is time the much awaited NCTC and a body to coordinate internal security issues within the country takes shape. The Special Forces need to come under a single authority like a Special Forces Command rather than each force reporting to a different ministry and the ministry being in a state not knowing when, where and how to employ these forces.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

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Author

Brigadier (retd) V Mahalingam, has held varying command and staff appointments in his 35 years of Army service. He specializes in security related matters and is a leadership trainer. His areas of interest include national security, defence and security forces, governance, and politics.

Brigadier (retd) V Mahalingam, has held varying command and staff appointments in his 35 years of Army service. He specializes in security related matters a. . .